Iddo Gefen's short story, "Debby's Dream House," from his collection, Jerusalem Beach, will be adapted into a film by Charlie Kaufman, starring Eddie Redmayne, Tessa Thompson, and Patsy Ferran, according to a report by Deadline.com on Monday.
The film will be titled After the War.
Gefen, born in Israel, is also the author of the novel, Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory. He is a PhD candidate in cognitive psychology at Columbia University in New York, and his writing combines subtle humor about everyday people's lives with insights derived from neuroscientific research on brain function. He penned an article for The Atlantic about his close friend who was fatally injured while battling Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, just days before he was set to get married.
“Debby’s Dream House” is about a man who creates dreams for others but then starts giving them nightmares instead.
Kaufman is an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director known for such offbeat comedies as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, and Synecdoche, New York. He wrote a comedy, Adaptation, about the challenges he faced in adapting the book The Orchid Thief for the screen. It is unclear how closely the movie will follow Gefen's story.